How to Fall in Love Again
by TheSwanWriter
Summary: Things change in a year, but Steve, Loki, and Clint never imagined that they'd each end their respective relationships. Steve and Tony's relationship was seemingly unfixable. Clint's ex-boyfriend wouldn't do long distance relationships. Loki's girlfriend moved away and he's lonelier than ever. This is how four freshman helped them be happy again. Highschool AU, sequel to FiLwtBS.


A.N. Hello. Again. So, it appears inspiration for my sequel arrived faster than I thought it would. First though, I wanted to say something that kind of makes me want to jump around like a crazy loon and freak out.

If you're going by reviews, my story is the THIRD MOST POPULAR SUPERHUSBANDS STORY IN ALL 9,000+ Avengers FICS ON Fanfiction dot net.

What. The. Heck.

Seriously?

*Seriously*?

So guys, this whole story is dedicated to all of you and your amazing reviews, and my amazing sister who keeps me updating. Without her you'd probably get updates every time I felt like it. Probably every two weeks. :P

Oh, and introducing Peter Parker, and some of the Ultimate Spider-Man crew.

WARNING: The happy ending of the first story will be destroyed. You have been warned.

Oh, and to the person who reviewed one of my stories anonymously and said, "Italics are a thing.", I'm sorry if that bothered you. I write all these on my iPod in my notes, so I use asterisks instead.

Chapter One

-/-/-/-/

It started in March.

March 5th, to be precise.

March 5th was the day that Bruce announced he was moving.

It wasn't his decision, not at all. He would've stayed forever if he was able, but his father got a high-paying science-y job that was basically a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Unfortunately, it also required that Bruce's family move.

To Hawaii.

All their reactions varied. Tony simply refused to wrap his mind around the fact that not everyone is content having the same job for 10 years. Steve understood Bruce's nervousness and sadness, he'd moved just the other year. Pepper was just... sad. Everyone was.

Clint's reaction was the worst.

They'd only been dating four months. Clint was truly hoping they'd stay together a lot longer, but Bruce said that a long-distance relationship wasn't going to work.

That was the last time Clint talked to him.

So come April 3rd, the Banners were gone. Clint still wouldn't talk to Bruce, and Tony knew Bruce was hurting because of it. Tony wasn't very happy at Clint, and a little seed of distrust was planted between the two, but it seemed harmless at the time

Everything went back to normal (Bruce-less normal, that is.), until the last day of school.

May 31st.

Thor decided that he and Loki (Mostly him.), wanted to throw a big party after school to celebrate the beginning of summer. They thought it was a great idea, and everyone said they'd be in attendance.

Except Natasha, because she had to *pack*.

As it just so happens, Natasha was moving as well. But she was moving out of the country.

Apparently, her Russian grandfather died and left her family a huge mansion and a *ton* of money. Her father thought it was a brilliant idea if they all moved to Russia. Oh, and she'd known this was happening since Bruce moved.

Bruce and Loki already knew. Everyone was horribly sad, but Clint and Thor were extremely hurt. They'd been a tight circle of friends since practically forever, why would she tell Loki and Bruce but not them? It didn't make sense!

Needless to say, none of them were very happy with Loki for not telling them. They understood that he was her boyfriend and all, but really, he hadn't even tried to convince her to tell them.

Bruce knew because she was really torn up about it, and she wanted some advice. But Steve had moved, why didn't she ask him?

Another seed of distrust was planted.

The final straw was when Steve found out that Tony cheated on him. Just with random girls. He had kissed, but not one, not two, but three girls. Over the course of July, Tony had cheated on Steve three times. He didn't even deny it, or apologize. He'd been such a jerk about it. He started yelling, and Steve started yelling, and then...

It all fell apart.

Suddenly, they stopped inviting each other over to each their respective houses. Clint was detaching himself from the rest of them, slowly, but surely. Tony went through a huge personality change, he was now an ultimate playboy. You'd see him making out with three girls a week. (It was surprising he hadn't gotten mono yet.) Any bit of his personality that had been changed by Steve had emerged again, even stronger than before. Steve stopped talking to him because it hurt to see him so changed.

Loki closed off and became reserved again after Natasha left. He hardly talked to anybody, except Thor.

Thor was doing alright, but he felt as if he'd lost two best friends instead of just one. He still talked to Clint, but it was usually a one-sided conversation.

School started again, and it seemed like everything was permanently changed. Changed for the worst.

But maybe, just maybe, a nerdy, lonely, quiet freshman could fix it all.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Peter Parker pushed his glasses up on his nose. There it was. Stark High. It didn't look as good as the brochure.

First days at new schools were not something Peter enjoyed. It was like transitioning from elementary school to middle school all over again, but worse. At least he had MJ and Harry in middle school.

He wasn't having a particularly good day to begin with. First, Aunt May had decided to experiment with breakfast. Bad, bad, bad idea. It turned out horribly wrong, nothing like the pancakes-made-with-yogurt-instead-of-milk experiment. Peter ate an apple instead, but the taste was still lingering in his mouth. Never, never ever, trick your nephew into eating pancakes with coffee as an add-in instead of chocolate chips or blueberries or something *normal*. Oh well, he could shrug that off.

Second, some jerk on the bus decided to spill his soda (Who drinks soda at 7 something in the morning?) all over Peter's shirt 'by accident'. He had a feeling that he and this... Flash Thompson (Was his name even Flash?) wouldn't be getting along very well.

Third, he left his PE clothes at home, so he couldn't change into that until Uncle Ben brought them by during lunch.

Until then, Peter was stuck with a partially soaked, sticky shirt, and he officially had no friends as of yet. (After the Flash incident, most of the people on the bus were laughing at him, so he didn't really get the opportunity to talk to any of them.)

He ended up sitting next to some girl named Gwen on the bus, who seemed sweet, but he didn't talk to her. He was already embarrassed enough without making a fool of himself.

He probably could've thought up a decent comeback to Flash's stupid insult (Puny Parker. His name was already an alliteration, he didn't need a nickname like that too.), but Uncle Ben would probably be disappointed if he got into a stupid fight on his first day of school. (He'd probably end up with a black eye anyways, so why bother?)

So he just started walking up the school, adjusted his glasses again (He needed them refitted, but he really didn't want to bother Uncle Ben and Aunt May.), and began walking up the steps to the school.

Peter was nearly inside when he heard Flash's obnoxious voice, this time he was bothering another kid, goading him for his lunch money. Of course. Now, Peter didn't like when he was picked on, but he could deal with getting picked on himself, but other people, just no.

"C'mon, you really don't want to start school on my bad side, just give me the money," Flash taunted.

The poor kid just backed away and ended up falling.

"Leave him alone, Flash," Peter found himself saying.

"Puny Parker. We meet again, twice in one day, huh? This doesn't concern you, man," Flash replied.

"Just leave him alone," Peter said again.

"Who's gonna make me? You?" Flash laughed.

Peter just pushed past Flash and helped the kid to his feet. Said kid promptly ran off without a simple 'thanks'.

"Shouldn't have done that, Parker."

Peter turned his head and found Flash's fist colliding with his face.

*Don't hit him back, don't hit him back.* Peter told himself in his head.

"Fight like a man, Parker!"

"You're so stupid," Peter grumbled as he got up.

"What?"

"Nothing," Peter said, and turned to leave.

"Hey, leave him alone before I get the principal."

Peter appreciated the interruption, at least a little bit. It was from a tall, blond... Junior? He looked about 16.

"Whatever, we were just havin' some fun. Right, Parker?" Flash gave him a smirk and sauntered off.

"Thanks," Peter said.

"No problem. You look like you could use a spare shirt. I have a spare if you want to borrow it, let's go inside," Junior-Guy offered. "I'm Steve Rogers, by the way."

Peter looked at Steve. "Peter Parker."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Tony put his bag in his locker before glancing sideways and seeing Steve walking with a shorter guy, probably a freshman.

He grinned despite himself. Leave it to Steve to pick up a loner freshie the first day of school.

"Hey babe."

Oh, her name was... Jennifer, or something. She was under the impression that Tony was her boyfriend or something.

"Oh, hi." Tony turned to face her.

"So, what's your first class?" She questioned, snaking her arms around his neck.

He ignored her. "I gotta go, and before you ask, we're not dating. Just because you decided you needed someone to make out with randomly doesn't mean we're together. We're not," Tony said and marched away.

"You know what? I'm not even sad," She said. Tony turned.

"Yeah? Well, good for you."

"Not for me, at least," She continued. "I feel really sorry for you. You're just a jerk, and you're never going to find anyone that actually wants to spend time with you, no matter if you're a good kisser or not. So you better go beg forgiveness from your ex-boyfriend, because he's the only one that can even suffer through you," Jenny turned on her heel and left.

Tony just turned and left, shutting out any thoughts of Steve as he made his way to class.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Clint wasn't really paying attention to what he was supposed to be doing. This science (What was it, biology or something? Clint didn't know and really didn't care.) class was already so boring, and he probably already knew all that crap. He tapped 'Play' on his iPod.

PLAY

"Video diary day... I dunno. Bruuuuce, what day is it?"

"Um... day six, since you started it on Christmas."

"Thanks. Day six of my video diary! So, it's New Year's Eve, and we're all hanging out at Darcy's because her parents are out on a date. And I found alcohol!"

"Put that up before you actually drink it."

"Aw Bruce, you're such a spoilsport."

"You like me anyways."

"Maybe a little bit."

"Yeah, a little bit."

"My boyfriend's being annoying. Tony! Get over here and let's split this beer!"

"Don't even think about it."

"Bruce! You spilled it..."

"I'm not kissing you if your breath smells like alcohol."

"Nyah."

PAUSE

Clint looked up from his iPod and grabbed a handful of peanuts from his backpack, shoving them in his mouth.

"Mister Barton, some people here suffer from peanut allergies, and you're not allowed to eat in this class. Put your snack away," Mr. Richards ordered.

Clint obliged. "Hey, can I use the restroom?"

"I suppose." Mr. Richards handed him the pass. "Hurry back."

Clint left as fast as he could. He'd been so bored. The only interesting thing about Reed Richards was his name. And maybe his wife.

He entered the bathroom, and after reassuring himself that it was empty, went into one of the stalls and sank to the floor. He missed Bruce. He missed Natasha. Not nearly as bad as before, but still.

He wanted to talk to Thor, but whenever he did, all these memories of their random misadventures with Natasha resurfaced, and he kind of felt like crying.

Clint Barton didn't cry. He had something against crying, at least in public. Other people could cry, that didn't bother him, but he seemed to have lost so much that year. His friends, and Bruce, meant the world to him, and he lost one of his best friends and his boyfriend.

He felt really lonely.

He'd never admit it to anyone, he liked to make people think he was just funny and carefree his whole life. Bruce knew differently, but he was the only one. At least, Clint hoped he was the only one.

He was sort of proud of himself, he hadn't cried a single tear since Bruce and Natasha left.

He couldn't bring himself to talk to Bruce. He knew he could call, he just didn't.

He couldn't.

But this was probably the most he'd missed them in a long, long while.

He felt tears forming in his eyes.

School used to be fun, it used to be enjoyable. Now he hated it. He even asked his parents about homeschooling him, but they both worked during the day and didn't believe he'd actually do his work if they weren't home.

The tears were getting stronger now. He didn't blink them back, he just let them fall.

He didn't mean to, he really didn't, but they started falling, and now they weren't stopping.

Now he was borderline sobbing.

Everything was finally too much, and he guessed he just couldn't hold the inevitable tears back any longer.

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Loki pulled his hands inside his sweater. They were having an unusually cold week for being in the middle of August, and the school hadn't fixed the heater in the Honors English 10 classroom yet.

Loki was doodling on the edge of his paper with his red pen. It reminded him of Natasha's hair.

Natasha. He missed Natasha.

They still talked though, but he really closed off since she'd left. He just didn't feel like being social. He actually felt depressed. Really depressed. He thought about suicide once, but Natasha comforted him and got him off that. Now he was just... depressed.

Everything had changed so much. Not even a year ago, everyone was so happy. Natasha was there. Bruce was still there, so Clint was happy.

Loki wondered what his brother's friend was up to. He would hate to admit it, but he kind of missed the older boy's presence at their house every other day. It brightened things up a bit. Even if he was obnoxious.

Thor remained the same, pretty much. Darcy was still with him, and he was still happy. He felt immensely guilty for Clint's closing off from everybody. Loki knew it probably wasn't Thor's fault, but Thor always blamed himself over that sort of thing.

Class ended, and Loki decided to walk to the bathroom before heading to his next class.

He was washing his hands when he heard a stifled sob coming from one of the stalls.

Loki usually would just let it go. If someone was crying, let them cry. But this time, something compelled him to walk over.

"Are you alright?"

He knocked on the door of the stall and found it wasn't locked, and sitting on the floor looking absolutely miserable was Clint Barton.

"Go away," Clint mumbled and got up, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. He pushed past Loki and went to the sinks.

"Barton, are you alright?" Loki asked again.

"I'm fine." Clint forced a smile and looked at the younger teen. "See? Fine."

"I don't think I've ever seen you cry," Loki murmured.

"I wasn't crying." Clint's tone changed to defensive.

"Everyone cries now and then, no need to get defensive."

"Seriously? You're not my shrink, Loki. Just mind your own business," Clint replied.

"If you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm... well, I know what you're going through," Loki said softly.

"I don't want your sympathy or whatever the heck you're giving, so just leave me alone," Clint walked towards the door.

"And for the record? You have *no* idea what I'm going through." He moved to open the door.

Loki pushed it shut. "Try me."

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

A.N. Okay, I know you're probably hating me right now. I'm really sorry. I did kind of just blow up their entire happiness.

Except Thor's.

Reviews are so appreciated! Very, very appreciated.


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